Little more than an hour to go, as I write this, before the entry list is published for the 2010 F1 world championship.

It has been described as being one of the most momentous days in F1 history by some and as an imminent armageddon by others. But I think all parties are aware that there is a bigger picture here.

F1 is a business that is attempting to change its model, but is undergoing a crisis about how to achieve that.

The timetable for this has been set by the FIA, who made the deadlines. The eight teams from FOTA have put in conditional entries and negotiations have been taking place right up to the deadline to find a solution. Although they aren’t too far apart on the numbers, the two sides are ideologically still quite far apart, so I can imagine a situation where the entries of the FOTA teams remain “provisional”, pending further talks.

When the F1 calendar is published there are often races which are marked as “provisional”, usually pending some track improvements.

The next FIA world council meeting is in two weeks time and I can imagine that will be the date by which the FIA will want to have everything done and dusted.

To the outside world, the sport has looked quite dysfunctional in recent weeks, with household-name teams threatening to quit and races held in front of empty grandstands in Turkey.

The biggest spenders in F1, the manufacturers, are where they are on this and are centrally involved in what happens next. But the current crisis has done nothing to reassure sponsors in F1 that the sport is on a sure footing. They are interested in return on investment.

Yesterday FIA president Max Mosley met with four of the team bosses for last minute talks. The teams, led by Ferrari, have said that they will not enter unconditionally unless the Concorde Agreement is signed, and then they want to use the channels laid out in that agreement to form the rules for next year.

The FIA appears to be suggesting that teams run under a £100m budget cap next year dropping to £40 million the following year.

The FIA and Bernie Ecclestone are adamant that the five teams who signed up in 2005 are legally bound to race next year. Williams seem to agree with that and are unconditionally entered, so are Force India. The two Red Bull teams and Ferrari are the others on that list and it is possible that both will appear on the list. Ferrari have already suggested that they would take a very dim view of this, as they believe the FIA has breached the agreement.

As for the new teams, I can see USF1 getting an entry along with Prodrive and quite possibly Campos.

That gives eight teams the FIA considers entered and five slots remaining.

McLaren, Renault, BMW, Toyota, Brawn may well appear on the list with a “provisional” tag.

If they are not on the list at all and names like Brabham and Lotus are, then things could get really interesting.

So if todays announcement could still be "provisional" it is a waste of time and little more than another move on the political chess game that is being played out between FOTA and the FIA.Whats the point?

Going to be an interesting day. Will it be a complete anti climax with all current teams entered and a couple of new ones? Will it be a landmark day in F1 with a grid dominated by nobodies and resurrected names from the history books? Will a sane and safe future for the sport be agreed at the last minute keeping all teams happy.

Some time ago, Max suggested [in his rather flippant manner] that if a team missed getting an entry, they could always buy one off a team that had an entry. Some people have already suggested that perhaps there are people behind the entry list as it stands now who are linked to one or other of the manufacturers. If for the sake of argument Ferrari, Red Bull and STR get an entry, could they then not sell it to whoever wants it, just as Max suggested. Could be a nice little earner!Many people have drawn a comparison with the IRL/Champ car split but they were pretty much the same spec cars. This split could very soon turn into quite different spec cars and so be perfectly viable for two sets of races although I hope that the breakaways don't get lured to the far east rather than racing on the classic european circuits, and in front of their faithful and adoring fans.

The teams will have to back down, there is no way they can viably get their own racing series up and running in time for next year and Bernie has already made it clear he will sue the pants off them if they approach any of the organisations that he already has contracts with.

i don't think very many of the provisional teams are genuine contenders for entry, they are just paper names for max to try to strengthen his position. hopefully due dilligence will quickly establish this, although i wouldn't put anything past the FIA. IF the list goes as you suggest it might (albeit very unlikely) then we are left with only one manufacturer, ferrari. with Cosworth today unwilling to confirm any involvement in next years championship, we could have a grid full of ferrari-powered cars!

the thing is, this fight is about a lot more than budgets. i can't see taht it is going to be resolved quickly or easily. i can't remember who said it, but i think it was an ex-driver saying the situation was compelling much as the jerry springer show is... i.e. not for the right reasons.

If Ferrari are included agains their will and they have contractual problems, I would suggest an easy solution would be to develop a car with a 10hp engine 2010, use their slice of the pie from this year to transport it to all the GP venues and let it pootle around for a lap or two before retiring at every GP. That should satisfy Mosley's craving for the stickling attention to the details in the face of the reality of the situation, and should come in well below the budget cap. Who knows it might even beat a few of the cars from these new 'F1 teams'.

As much as I think cost-cutting measures have to be introduced for the sake of the sport, I cannot agree with the way Max Mosley has dealt with it. FIA should apply the rules among the players, not dictate them against the players (especially when act unanimously).

Plus, I very much dislike Bernie Ecclestone / CVC getting 50% of the revenues for taking F1 to countries with empty grandstands. Who's more important for F1, Ecclestone or the teams? Can you imagine NBA organisation getting half of the revenues of the NBA show from the teams?

Quite simply, whichever series is shown on BBC1 on a sunday afternoon. My guess is that the vast majority of people will feel the same way. Even if this break-away series is better run, with better racing and the manufacturers all present; it will still take time for the casual fan to change their mindset from sunday afternoon on a main, free to air tv channel. The teams know this and bernie is well aware of it.

Well for me, and some other die-hard F1 fans I'm friends with, our allegiance will lie squarely with the breakaway series. We will vote for fairer division of revenues, and keeping the show in the hands of the teams that create the spectacle, taking the control from the power hungry and money greedy.